Maria Gabriela De Faria

Maria Gabriela de Faria is an award-winning Venezuelan actress. Most recently having starred as “Cora” in Fox’s “A Moody Christmas”, Maria’s first U.S. series was the cult favorite Image Comics/SyFy series, “Deadly Class,” where she played assassin-in-training “Maria Salazar”. De Faria catapulted to fame across Latin America as a teen in 2008, starring as “Isa” in “Isa TKM”. The Nickelodeon teen telenovela was dubbed the “Latin American High School Musical” by The New York Times, and the show became Nick’s No.1 Spanish Language series in 23 countries. Media buzz surrounding Maria (coined “Isa Mania” by the Los Angeles Times) landed her on the cover of every teen magazine and on every “best dressed” and “girl I’d most like to be” list across Latin America and Brazil (alongside US stars like Miley Cyrus and Gwen Stefani). Maria went on to star as the villain “Mia” in Nickelodeon’s other big international hit series “Grachi” (Seasons 2 and 3). With Maria added to Season 2, the show nearly tripled its ratings, and continued to build through Season 3. Her third and most recent hit series for Nickelodeon,“Yo Soy Franky!”, netted Maria her 12th International Kids Choice Awards nomination and her 5th win. She was also nominated for a U.S. Kids Choice Award for “Favorite Latin Star”. When not on location filming, Maria lives in Los Angeles with her husband, actor Christian McGaffney, and two sassy cats (Sgt. Pepper and Eleanor Rigby) that she rescued off the streets of Bogota.